Two actions related to the comprehensive examinations were taken at the departmental retreat on the 16th of January, 1999.
First, the comprehensive examination committee was eliminated from the departmental code. Second, the core component of the comprehensive examination was abolished. In other words, the "specialty examination," is now the entire comprehensive examination, and its administration, grading, recording, reporting, etc. is handled by the program directors. The comprehensive examination administered by the program directors may or may not include material from the core courses (statistics, learning, and cognition), and may or may not involve a traditional written examination. In accordance with the motion passed at the retreat, I have revised the comprehensive examination policy statement by eliminating all material which referred to the core examinations. Here is the revised policy statement:
Establishing procedures for the administration of the comprehensive examination is the responsibility of the director of the appropriate program (General, Clinical, or School). The program director will decide upon the content of the exam and how it will be graded. Program directors may allow students to satisfy the comprehensive examination requirement by a nonexamination option, such as completing a research project and publishing it or presenting it at a professional meeting. In any case, once the student has completed the comprehensive examination, the program director will notify the Graduate School regarding whether the examination was passed or failed.
Students will not be permitted to defend their thesis until they have passed the comprehensive examination.
Information for students in the Research concentration of the General program is available at this link: Research Program Comprehensive Examinations.
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Dr. Karl L. Wuensch
This page most recently revised on 24. August 2007.